July Prayer letter – Todd and Celesta James
This is going to be a different kind of prayer letter. I wrote this after receiving the John Wooden version of Meet My Head Coach. Hope you enjoy it and see how the Lord often uses us in ways we would never expect.
John Wooden’s Greatest Victory
John Wooden is considered by many to be America’s greatest coach of all time. What he accomplished while coaching UCLA will never be repeated in college basketball. 10 National Championships in 12 years. 7 Consecutive NCAA Championships. 88 consecutive victories. 4 undefeated seasons. 667 wins and 161 losses, for a winning percentage of 81% As a young coach I remember watching those teams play and thinking that they just weren’t ever going to lose because of the way that they played together. Now I didn’t know how that all came about and I’ve spent a lifetime reading all the books written about Coach Wooden and even talked to a few of his players about how he coached them. In the last few years as Coach Wooden has grown older more books have been written about him than when he was at the height of his coaching career. One has to ask why? Why write about a man who is now 97 years old and near the end of his life. I’ll tell you why, because John Wooden was about much more than basketball. The principles he taught were timeless. Values that seem old fashion today still pass the test of time. Things like effort, enthusiasm, loyalty, cooperation, team spirit, and many more have been forgotten by a generation of people who have been tricked into believing that money and position will bring them happiness. When these people finally climb that ladder of success and reach the top they often find nothing up there and have lost many of those they loved and cared about along the way. Is that success? One of Coach Wooden’s favourite saying about success is, “Success is peace of mind which is a direct result of self-satisfaction in knowing you did your best to become the best that you are capable of becoming.” Now what that basically means is that if you tried your best, you are a success. The question you have to ask yourself is, “Did I try my best”? What Coach Wooden was able to do was to get the best out of his teams, by not allowing them to accept something that was less. If they made mistakes he corrected them and had them repeat them until they could do them automatically without error at a speed which most teams never reached because they were allowed to go at a speed which wasn’t their best. Today his players look back and realize what they not only accomplished by playing for him, but why? They were not only fundamentally sounder, but weren’t allowed to give anything less than their best. This has caused many of them to not only go on to successful careers in basketball, but also in life. They had learned the principles and now they were using them to move ahead in other pursuits. The principles had been passed on without some of them even knowing it.
As much as I love basketball and as much as I have learned about coaching by modelling some of my coaching to the things that John Wooden taught. This is not why I’m writing this article about him. I’m writing this in the hope that it finds it way to some of his players or people who respect John Wooden as not only a coach, but a person of high moral values and wonder what the bottom line was for this man. Many would know that he professed to be a Christian, yet he never pushed his beliefs on his players or others. He tried to live his faith out before them and hoped that they would recognize these Christian values and be attracted to them. This was much the same as the way he promoted his Pyramid of Success. He told you about it, but more importantly he tried to live those principles out daily so that others would see them and be attracted to them.
Even when his young players were thinking that a lot of this sounds corny and didn’t pick up on much of what was being said he was influencing them with those principles. Now, years later they understand. Just read some of the comments of some of the players who have played under him and you not only understand how he had influenced them, but also how much they love him for it.
So this brings me back to me and why I’m writing about all of this. Basketball has played a big part in my life, and while not as famous as John Wooden, I have tried to use it to influence people also. When I finished my coaching career as a high school basketball coach we felt called to go to the mission field to tell people about what Christ had done in our lives and to help start churches where people could learn about Christ and grow in their faith. Saying this though, it is hard to take the coach out of the missionary and I often found myself meeting people through basketball. These people would often ask me why I was in Ireland and then what did I believe. One morning I woke up and wrote down my basic beliefs in a short tract called Meet My Head Coach. Others have helped to produce it for me and when I first got them I would hand them to people who I might meet and share with them about it. I often said that they should read it and then when we would bump into each other I would ask if they understood it and what they thought about it. I’ve continued to do this for several years now and have also felt led to send them to other ministries which use basketball to share Christ. Today this small tract is in something like 10 languages and used by ministries around the world. I have several of them sitting in front of me as I write from countries like Russia, Poland, Spain, and even other sports which have chosen to use them. They help to remind me to not only pray for these countries and those ministries, but to remember that it is God who will bring about the results for those who are using them. One of these ministries was Athletes in Action. They took Meet My Head Coach and made some adaptations for their own ministry and had used James Naismith as a model of a coach who had a plan. Well James Naismith might have invented the game of basketball, but outside of people who have studied about it, few would even know who he is. I was reading Jay Carty’s devotional, Coach Wooden One-on-One, which he wrote with him and noticed a comment that he made about his own reason for writing the devotional so that others would know more about John Wooden’s spiritual side. As I thought about that more I began to think, why not contact Jay and see if John Wooden might not endorse the tract as a way to share it and because he probably was the coach who always had a plan for helping his team to victory, which is one of the themes of Meet My Head Coach. Jay answered back and said that I should contact him and ask. He also mentioned that he might not respond as he gets many such requests from people to help them with various projects. I had his address and phone number, but now what was I going to do. Well I decided to call him and when I picked up the phone I realized that I was about to talk to one of the people who I not only respected the most, but who many would love to just sit down and talk with and glean from him many of the things he has taught over the years.
Just before calling I was in the kitchen with Celesta and I told her, “I feel like I’m calling God”. I really couldn’t believe that I was about to talk to him. The phone rang and rang and then there was a message. I left a message, but never heard back. I’m sure ringing Ireland would have been low on his priority list anyway. Well, after a short time I decided instead to write him and sent him the AIA tract and also mine and asked if would consider having his own version of the tract. When I didn’t hear for another month I wrote again. Time passed and in about a month a letter came. As soon as I saw the letter I knew that he was answering. I have several things that he has signed over the years either to me as a young coach or through friends who have met him and asked him to sign something like his Pyramid of Success or a book which they wanted to send to me as a gift. I was amazed how similar his signature was from something signed in 1975 to something in 2005. Needless to say, I was “Over the Moon” as they say in Ireland and quickly went into the house to tell Celesta that I had gotten a letter from him and he wouldn’t have written if he weren’t going to say yes to having a tract for him done. I went from the “mountain top” to the “valley” in about 10 seconds when I opened the letter and read that he appreciated me writing and asking, but felt that it would be inappropriate to replace James Naismith on the tract. I actually thought that maybe he didn’t understand what I was asking him to do. Then I thought he didn’t realize that most people didn’t know who James Naismith was and that he was a much better example of a coach with a plan. Finally, I realized that this was his choice and how amazing that a man in his mid 90’s, and still very famous, had actually taken the time to write someone all the way over in Ireland to tell why they couldn’t do it. What it did for me was to show what kind of person John Wooden continues to be. I actually cherish the letter even though he said no to my request.
Time passed since I received his letter and then one morning I woke up and thought about Athletes in Action. This ministry actually had a part in our coming to the mission field almost 30 years ago when we had friends who ministered to me as a young coach. We were challenged by them in terms of our own ministry amongst those we had contact with and from that came the challenge by our own church about the call to missions. I knew that Athletes in Action often worked with Coach Wooden and especially during basketball season and at the Final Four. I sent my version to their basketball ministry to find out if they were interested in contacting Coach Wooden about having his own tract to be used by them. They liked the idea and actually contacted me about helping to write it with them. I gave them some suggestions, while thinking that I’m not a writer, the tract I wrote, was a gift from the Lord, He took my love of basketball and my love for Him and combined them to come up with Meet My Head Coach. I actually wrote it in about 40 minutes and it has changed very little over the past 8 years. Now I was being asked to contribute to one which would be going to John Wooden for his approval. Those who know me know that I’m not a writer and you might be thinking that as you read this. Anyway, because of how much I have read by Coach Wooden or things that have been written about him I was able to put some things that related to his philosophy of life and also Meet My Head Coach. This process took several months to go through and I hadn’t heard anything and was wondering if it would ever happen. March was now approaching and I knew that AIA always has an outreach where Coach Wooden will speak and at the Final Four the award for the best player in basketball is given the Wooden Award. Then news came that Coach had fallen and broken his wrist and a collar bone. I actually began to think that it wasn’t going to happen. I also began to think that at his age he might be with his Head Coach before he could see the new version. Athletes in Action decided because of his health condition to fly out to California and film him for the outreach. It was during their time there that he saw the John Wooden version of Meet My Head Coach and agreed to them producing it. In the new version because it is personalized for him he gives a very clear statement of his own faith in Christ as his Saviour and Lord.
There are no doubts about where he stands in terms of who he is trusting for his eternal destiny and how he is going to get there.
I received an email from Athletes in Action and the day it came the title was Coach Wooden. Needless to say I was worried when I got it. Remember he had written me before only to say he couldn’t do it. I prayed and ask the Lord for the response I was hoping for so that He would get the glory. Then I opened the email and the first words I read were “Wow, Coach Wooden has signed off on the tract”. You couldn’t believe how happy I was at that moment. It wasn’t because he said yes, but the fact that he had had so much impact on so many lives over so many years and now his testimony will continue to impact others for the cause of Christ long after he is with his Head Coach. I thought how amazing that God could use a missionary in Ireland, who use to be a basketball coach to write something that would eventually go back to a person who had an impact on him as a young coach.
I recently received the Athletes in Action Wooden Tract and they have done a great job of producing it. It’s very much similar to the original, but with pictures of Coach Wooden and some of his own statements put in to emphasize some of the points. As I was reading though it I kept thinking about all the things that coach taught his players and what he would feel was the most important. I think his tract makes it clear. You can have all the victories in the world of basketball and lose in the game of life. You can have all the money in the world and not be happy and find meaning in life. Only God has a plan for helping us to know Him and enjoy him forever. Coach knew that and lived his life with that in mind. He now has expressed it clearly in his own version of Meet My Head Coach. He wants those who he has loved to know that to. He wants them to meet his Head Coach and enjoy eternity with him. I’d like to share a poem that Coach wrote that I think expresses this.
Do Not Look Back
The years have left their imprint on my hands and on my face
Erect no long is my walk and slower is my pace;
But there is no fear within my heart because I’m growing old,
I only wish I had more time to further serve my Lord.
When I’ve gone to Him in prayer, He has brought me inner peace,
And soon my cares and worries and all others troubles cease,
He has blest me in so many ways; He has never let me down,
Why should I fear the future when I soon may touch His crown?
Though I know down here my time is short, there is endless time up there,
And He will forgive and keep me forever in His loving care,
May I not waste an hour that’s left to glorify the name,
Of the one who died, that we might live, and for our sins took all the blame.
John Wooden’s greatest victory was not on a basketball court. His greatest victory came the day that he chose to accept Jesus Christ as his Lord and Saviour and to live for Him. Christ died to give him victory over life’s greatest enemy, death and give him a better life here. I want to finish by giving you a few verses from the Bible which enables a person to be able to write a poem like the one above.
John 5:24
“I tell you the truth, whoever hears my words and believes him who sent me has
eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life.”
I Corinthians 15:54-57
“Death has been swallowed up in victory”. “Where, O death, is your victory?
Where, O death, is your sting?” The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin
is the law. But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord
Jesus Christ.
I John 5:4-5
“for everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that overcomes
the world, even our faith. Who is it that overcomes the world? Only he who
believes that Jesus is the Son of God.
Coach trusted Christ at an early age. He lived his life for Him while imparting many of the principles that Jesus would have stood for through his Pyramid of Success. But the Pyramid will not get you to Heaven. Only a relationship with Jesus Christ will do that.